September 11, 2007 (LPAC)--On Sept. 5, during the APEC summit meeting in Sydney, Australia, Australian Prime Minister John Howard got as gift from President Bush, in the form of a defense trade treaty similar to the one Bush signed with then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair, last June. According to this week's issue of Defense News," the treaty "would dramatically reduce the need for certain Australian and U.S. companies to apply for export licenses when trading in military goods or services." Defense contractors in both the U.S. and Australia are said to be thrilled about the treaty but, as with the British treaty, arms control advocates are concerned, because the oversight and the paper trail provided by the current U.S. export control system makes it more difficult for weapons to be diverted to end users who aren't suppose to be able to get them. In 2004, then-House International Relations Committee chairman Henry Hyde (R-IL) blocked similar deals negotiated by the State Department with both Britain and Australia over concerns that neither of those countries had export control regimes that could stop the illicit transfer of U.S. weapons and technology to potential adversaries.

BAE Systems is not mentioned in the Defense News article as one of the companies that will benefit from the new treaty, but given that BAE has very large operations in both countries, they must be thrilled too.